


Bad Things Happen Bingo - Prompt 2

by MeYaGurl



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Burns, Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us) Bonding, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Daughter Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, I love them so much, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Softie Joel (The Last of Us), Whump, chemical burns, fem whump, papa joel, referenced in part 2 but never shown in game, what the fuck did I write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:53:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25720123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeYaGurl/pseuds/MeYaGurl
Summary: Ellie hates the scar. It's a reminder of how different yet useless she is. She decides to take matters into her own hands.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853737
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Bad Things Happen Bingo - Prompt 2

Ellie knew it was stupid of her to have done it but the less distinct and recognisable it was, the better.

The idea first popped into her head when she and Joel first were being trained to go on patrols and how to use weapons against the infected. The pair were being shown around Jackson, the first stop was the armoury. There were a group of people pulling a bright pot filled with a glowing liquid. 

“What’s that?” Ellie pointed to the group.

“They’re smelting scrap metal down so we can reuse it to make roofs on new buildings or new parts for guns that get damaged.” Ellie nodded and the three went to turn around. Ellie knocked a bottle over, spilling a little bit of it on the floor. Ellie bent down to pick it up but Joel stopped her.

“Whoa, you don’t want to touch that, kiddo. It’s acid, it’ll burn your skin.” Ellie left it on the floor as Tommy called one of the group over to clean it up. 

\---

Ellie was really starting to get annoyed with having to wear a bandage everywhere. It made her skin sweaty underneath. It was summer though, it's not like she can go round with long sleeve shirts on all summer without people finding it weird.

The only people who knew about her 'accident' were Joel, Tommy and Maria. Ellie was told to not tell anyone about it, not that she was going to anyway.

For breakfast, Ellie always sat with Joel, Tommy and Maria. There weren't many kids in Jackson, most of them were young kids under ten. There was Jesse but he was older than her and for the most part, kept to himself.

This morning was no different than any other. Joel was munching on a slice of buttered toast whilst half listening to Tommy and Maria discussing what work needed to be done around Jackson.

Ellie started cutting her sausages up to eat.

"Ellie!" Said Joel in what was supposed to be a hushed tone. With a mouth full of sausage, Ellie mumbled a quiet.

"What?" Joel's eyes went from Ellie's face to her right arm. Looking down at her arm, Ellie's heart dropped. She'd forgotten to re-wrap her arm in a bandage.

"Shit..." Ellie slid her arm under the table, praying that no one had really noticed it. 

"You know you need to be more careful, kid. If that got out-"

"I know-"

"Do you? Because here you are with your arm on full show for everyone to see like an id-" With that, Ellie slammed her hands down and got up from the table.

"Ellie!" She didn't bother looking back at them. She pressed her arm into her stomach as hard as she possibly could.

She wasn't really looking where she was going and bumped straight into one of the chefs who was going out to the front to cut up some more beef. Unfortunately during their scuffle, the knife caught the skin on Ellie's arm. Putting a deep cut in her arm in-between the teeth marks.

"Fuck!"

"Oh my God. I am so sorry. Here let me get you cleaned up." Ellie pushed her arm into her stomach, even more, covering her once green shirt in blood.

"No, it's okay. I can deal with it." Before he could stop her, she pushed her way out of the building. She could hear Joel's faint voice behind her calling her name.

She sprinted out onto the streets of Jackson, her first thought was to go back to her garage but she knew that would be the first place Joel would go. Ellie heard Joel getting closer behind her and decided to sprint down the road with no idea of where she going. 

Tears were flooding from her eyes and her arm was still bleeding.

Eventually, she ended up in the armoury, the morning patrols hadn’t returned yet. She curled up under one of the workbenches, sobbing as her arm bled onto the floor. She looked down at her arm through tears that were flooding from her eyes. The blood had completely soaked the front of her shirt and had started soaking the front of her jeans.

She knew there was a first aid kit somewhere in the armoury. 

Tears rolled down her face as she searched for the kit. Why did she have to be the chosen one? Why did she have to get bitten? Why did it have to be in such a visible part of her body? Why did it have to leave such an obvious ring of teeth? If only she could make it disappear. If only she could change the appearance of it. If only-

Ellie's eyes flickered a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. She recalled Joel telling her that because it was a strong acid people needed to wear gloves when using it.

Without hesitation, she ripped the lid off with her mouth, spitting the lid out of her mouth. She lent her right arm over the skin on the end of the workbench whilst the left arm shakily poured the acid on the scar and cut.

She immediately bit her lip to stop herself from cry out in pain. She kept pouring it on her arm, her skin felt as if it were on fire. 

The pain got too much for Ellie and she dropped the bottle before collapsing under the workbench again. She looked down at her arm and saw it was started to swell and had turned her whole arm red. There was still acid dripping off of her skin and onto the floor.

The next thing that hit Ellie was the smell of the acid. She started involuntarily gagging at it. Tears were streaming down her face as she sobbed whilst gagged over the side of the workbench.

She managed to stop herself from throwing up and continued to look for the first aid kit. She threw cupboard after cupboard open until she finally found it. She had been taught how to stitch up wounds in the quarantine zone back in Boston.

She stitched the cut-up as best she could, her arm was still red but the swelling was starting to go down. She wrapped it up to conceal her arm completely before heading home. 

When she got to the garage, she was surprised to see Joel wasn’t there or in his house. She unlocked the door, threw on a long sleeve hoodie before collapsing on the couch. 

\--- 

When she woke up, it was late afternoon. Joel was knocking on her door, her arm hurt even more than it previously had during the day.

“Ellie, I know you’re in there. Let’s talk about this, okay?” Ellie stood up from the couch and almost fell over again as the floor seemingly turned to jelly under her. She managed to catch herself before she fell and got to the door. 

Joel was leaning against the door frame, his face dropped at the sight of her. Her eyes were red and she was pale. 

“Why on earth are you wearing a thick hoodie? It’s hundred-degree weather.” Ellie shrugged.

“Didn’t want to look at my arm.” The thought of her arm suddenly popped into her head as it started burning again but this time it was enough to make feel sick. 

Joel was saying something to her but she couldn’t hear him over the sick feeling in her throat and stomach. 

“I’m sorry for what-”  
“Can we talk about this over dinner or something. I’m just- I’m just not feeling great at the moment.” Joel nodded his head but was cut off by Ellie slamming the door in his face. 

Shocked, he stood, staring at her door for a moment before turning away. As he turned away he heard the sound of her gagging. 

He stood there for a moment, fighting the fatherly urge in him to knock the door to make sure she is okay. He knew that she’d tell him if something was wrong but he also knew that she wasn’t his biggest fan at the moment and he had insulted her to her face just that morning. 

He knocked on the door and yelled.  
“Ellie, what’s wrong?” He heard her cough more before replying to him.

“I’m fine, Joel. Really.” Not believing a word she was saying as he heard her continue to cough and gag, he tried the door handle but it’s locked. He walked around to the garage door to see if he could find a way in.

Ellie had taken the bandage off of her arm and was gagging at the sight and smell of her arm. her skin had absorbed the acid and had made her skin blister horribly. 

She lent over the bath as she continued to gag. 

She was so preoccupied with trying not to throw up that she hadn't heard Joel jam the garage door up enough so he could slip under it.

"Ellie? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine-" The sound of vomit filled her garage. Joel winced at the sound, he took a deep breath but grimaced at the smell. He knew it wasn’t the smell of sick but something else far worse.

"What is that smell? Ellie! What the hell is going on? I'm coming in." Ellie pushed her foot against the door in an effort to stop him but all her strength had been drained from throwing up and the fact that her arm felt like it was on fire.

The colour from Joel's face dropped as he realised what she'd done. He’d heard that there had been some kind of acid spill but it never occurred to him that Ellie would do something like this.

"Jesus, kiddo." He reached her over and grabbed the shower head before turning it on. He washed away the sick first before grabbing her right hand, causing her to cry out in pain, and holding it over the bath to wash it. He kept her arm under the water as she slumped against him, sobbing into his jacket.

"Oh, baby girl." Her arm reached around him and held on to him tight.

\---

After almost an hour of washing her arm, Joel turned the water off. Ellie immediately retracted her arm to her chest.

"Ellie, we need someone to look it over, okay?" Ellie shook her head into his chest. "Yes. I think you've had an allergic reaction to the acid. You need to have it looked at." Again, Ellie shook her head at the idea. This time, Joel got much firmer with her.

"Ellie, you need to have it looked over. We can get Maria to look it over if you'd really rather not go to the infirmary." Ellie was still for a moment before reluctantly agreeing.

Joel scooped Ellie up in his arms and placed her on the couch as gently as he could before returning to the bathroom to clean it up.

"Joel?" Joel turned to see Tommy's feet under the garage door. Ellie started crying more at the sound of his voice.

"Not now Tommy. Can you ask Maria to stop by? And bring the full med kit with her please?"

"Uh, okay then." Tommy's footsteps disappeared as Joel went back to cleaning. He looked at Ellie to see she had curled in on herself whilst facing away from him.

A few minutes later, Maria knocked at the door, medkit in hand. Joel rested Ellie’s head on his lap as she continued to cry. Maria gently took her arm to assess the damage. She and Joel shared a look that didn’t go unnoticed by Ellie.

“Ellie, I need to take you to the infirmary. I don’t have enough resources here to help treat this.” Ellie shook her head and retracted her arm. 

“Ellie, you need this to be looked at properly, okay.” Joel picked her up bridal style. Ellie tried fighting back but she was too drained to get even a little bit of power over Joel. 

Ellie gave in and at some point on the walk across town, she fell back to sleep on Joel’s shoulder.

When they arrived at the infirmary, Maria took them in a back way, away from prying eyes. 

\---

“Its a serve chemical burn. She’s lucky the swelling stopped too much of the acid from getting into the cut on her arm. She’s going feel a little crap for a little while but it should heal.” 

“When you say heal, what about scarring?” The doctor sighed.

“Unfortunately there is going to be serve scarring. There was nothing we could do about that I’m afraid.” Joel sighed and nodded.

“Thank you, Nathan.” Maria shook hands with Nathan as he left the room.

Ellie was asleep on the bed, her arm was bandaged up with some antibiotic cooling agent on her skin to help the burn. Joel sat in the chair beside her, holding her hand in his. 

“This is my fault.” Maria shook her head. 

“Don’t say that. It was probably an accident.” Joel gave Maria a look, even as she said it she sounded unsure. 

“She just happened to spill acid on her scar and didn’t bother to wash it off.” The sarcasm was dripping from Joel’s voice. 

The pair sighed together and sat in silence until Ellie groaned from the bed. Maria took that as her queue to leave.

“Joel?” Ellie rubbed her eyes with her left hand. 

“Hey, kiddo.” Ellie took a minute to take in her surroundings. At first, she was panicked but then remembered why she was there. 

“Oh.” She stared at the bandage on her arm. Joel couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Why’d you do it?” Ellie didn’t make eye contact with him, instead, she played with the blanket that had been laid over her. 

“I hated the sight of it. The constant reminder that I’m different but also completely useless. I wanted to get rid of it.” Joel gave Ellie’s hand a reassuring squeeze. He didn’t know what to say in response, so instead, he lent over and hug her. She hugged back after a moment and they stayed like that for god knows how long.


End file.
